Lou | nationality: Filipino/Swedish | ethnicity: Filipino
“Yellow”.
Like the swedish wordplay ”Gult är fult” which means”Yellow is ugly”, I
grew up associating the word yellow with somethingnegative and as a
way to offend asians.
“Asian”.
To me personally, being asian isn’t an ”aesthetic”or a piece of clothing I
chose to wear, I am asian, I was born into an asianfamily from an asian
country. I don’t like to define being ”asian” as Asiaisn’t just one country.
Everyone is different so depending on which part ofAsia you come
from, we relate and react to things differently.
Ethnicity|part1.
Filipino, multicultural, literally a mix of everything.
Ethnicity|part2.
The Philippines has been heavily influenced by differentcultures as
many countries colonized the island. So everythingfrom our language,
our view on society, the food we eat is a mix of everything.Also I was
born and raised in Sweden, but I was raised with thelanguage, culture
and the food from the Philippines. So depending onthe situation, I can
sometimes feel very distant from my heritage so tosay, or I don’t feel
any different at all. But this is something I nevergive much thought to,
this is just how I’ve always been now when I thinkabout it.
Differ from Asian stereotype(s).
I am someone who’s interested in music and culture.I never had
straight A’s and my parents never pressured me andalways told me
that doing my best is good enough. I taught myselfhow to play
instruments because I wanted to, I was never pushedinto a career or a
hobby that I didn’t like. When it comes to stereotypesI haved mixed
feelings because I obviously no matter who you areor where you’re
from people will already have this perception of youbefore you can
even introduce yourself. The problem with asian stereotypesis that
they are really just offensive and disrespectful.A very typical thing I
would hear is if I ever did get a good grade or ifsomeone saw me
holding chopsticks properky they would say ”It’s given,she’s asian”.
Again, asia isn’t just one country, we eat with handswhere I’m from!
These asian stereotypes are either there to offendyou or belittle you,
either way it’s disrespectful.
A theoretical space without racism.
It’s hard for me to imagine a world without racism.But if I did grow up
in a world where racism didn’t exist, I would’ve beenmore or less
comfortable growing up. Being comfortable and proudof my ethnicity
isn’t something I would have to ”work on”. I would’venever had to think
that I was ”different” and that it was a bad thing.In this imaginary
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